MOTIVATE
TO
- by Gary B. Cohen, Executive Coach
ACTION
How do I generate a sense of urgency?
W
hen the Spanish conqueror, Cortez, ordered his crew to fight the Aztecs in Mexico, he met resistance. After all, his crew was grossly outnumbered. What was the incentive? Once they were ashore, Cortez set fire to his own ships. With that act, he changed the question from “Why should we attack the natives?” to “How will we win the fight?” The incentive was now eminently clear to crew members-saving their own lives. They no longer had a Plan B to fall back on. Interestingly, the Aztecs, who witnessed the burning of the ships, fled in fear. They did not want any part of a fight against a foe that confident of victory.
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When Janet Froetscherv was hired to be executive director of United Way of Chicago, she was given the Herculean task of bringing together fifty-four separate United Ways in the Greater Chicago area. This had been an objective since the 1960s, but had never been accomplished. Each organization stood behind their own independent and noble causes, unwilling to put aside differences and centralize power. Janet didn’t set fire to any ships, but, like Cortez, she took away the escape routes for these independent organizations. She successfully lobbied the support of UWA to to pull the charters of each United Way, and she threatened to pull the business support of those that didn’t cooperate with the unification effort. Once there were no escape routes for the individual United Ways, they put their attention and effort toward accomplishing the goal. Janet had changed the overarching question from “Why should we consolidate?” to “How will we consolidate?” It helped, of course, that these organizations had a larger incentive-helping their constituents. CEOs and board members had to give up their positions, so the work was not easy, but all parties came to the table and hashed out a workable plan. The result-the consolidation generated savings of over $3 million dollars, which fell directly to the people they served. This documented efficiency (they saved twenty four cents on every dollar), in turn, made it easier for United Way Chicago to generate more funding from donors. If you cut off escape routes, all attention and effort will go to the goal. The question will change from “Why should we...?” to “How will we...?” The morale of your team members will likely be higher, though, if you have a noble goal, as Janet did, rather than threatening your crew’s lives, as Cortez did!
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